Conventional turbines, such as gas turbines, generally include three sections: a compressor section, a combustor section and a turbine section. In some gas turbine engine designs, a duct, known as a transition piece (or simply, transition), also referred to as a “TP” extends between the combustor section and turbine section. The transition piece (TP) serves many purposes, one of which is to direct the hot gases produced in the combustor section to the turbine section.
In order to ensure proper operation of the gas turbine engine, the inlet end of the TP and the combustor section should be aligned with precision. However, conventional installation and alignment methods can be cumbersome, time consuming, labor intensive, unsafe, and require manual mathematical calculations. Consequently, rework operations have been common when such conventional methods are employed.